Large-Part Turning Gives Shop Huge Advantage for the petrochemical and paper mill industries. While...

December 2013 | ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 37

When Claude Barber, founder of Plant Machine

Works Inc. in Baton Rouge, LA, passed away in

2006, his son Tom (Tommy) Barber officially took

ownership of the shop that, at the time, specialized in repair

work for the petrochemical and paper mill industries. While

Tommy had basically zero experience in the day-to-day

operations of the shop—having instead pursued a career in

teaching and coaching sports—he successfully continued

and expanded upon his father’s legacy to build Plant Machine

Works into a shop that stands out from the competition by way

of its large-part machining capabilities.

Tommy Barber, now owner and president, desperately

wanted to differentiate the shop when he transitioned it into

one that provided machining services as well as the estab-

lished repair work. While doing so, he believed that the key to

success would be to offer a niche machining service. In deter-

mining what that should be, he looked closely at all the other

general machine shops in the immediate area. What he found

was that all of them had small and medium-size machines,

so, he decided the shop’s niche would be to go big, literally,

and he acquired one of the largest CNC horizontal boring

mills with a 78" (1981-mm) table and 55,000-lb (24,948-kg)

workpiece capacity. At the time, it was the biggest machine of

its kind in the state.

Barber’s initial plan with the machine was to pursue line-

boring work in the large-gearbox market—gearboxes as big as

a 15 × 15' (4.5 × 4.5-m) room. However, six months prior to

actual installation and as the shop prepared for the huge new

machine, the word got out, and Barber’s phone began to ring

non-stop with incoming work requests.

“Every major oil company imaginable called,” said Barber.

“Before our boring mill was even on the ship making its way to

the United States, we had purchase orders to machine large

parts, none of which had anything to do with gearboxes. And

ironically, that particular machine, to this day, has never actu-

ally line bored a gearbox, nor have the other two huge boring

mills we’ve since purchased.”

As the shop’s large-part machining business—mostly mill-

ing work—continued to surge, Plant Machine Works grew to its

current 73 employees and 55,000 ft2 (5110-m2) facility with an

increasing number of these existing customers requesting that

the shop also do large-part turning work for them as well.

So in keeping with its newly established large-parts-making

niche, Plant Machine Works invested in a turning machine with

Large-Part Turning Gives Shop Huge Advantage

ShopSolutionsCase Histories of Manufacturing Problem Solving

“The machines have not only significantly improved part accuracy, they’ve allowed us to continuously reduce our turnaround times.”

Tommy Barber, Plant Machine Works owner and president,

shows 4143 steel mechanical inner sleeves for the oil and

gas industry turned on the shop’s Mazak Quick Turn Nexus

350 in only 40 minutes. The same operations used to take

1.5 hours on the shop’s other equipment.

more advanced capabilities than an old legacy lathe it had in

the repair side of the business. Unfortunately, this big newer

CNC two-axis lathe with 160" (4-m) long bed fell short when it

came to rigidity and durability. Thus, part accuracy suffered.

This is when Barber acquired the shop’s first Mazak

machine, a Slant Turn Nexus (STN) 500 turning center from

Mazak distributor Dixie Mill in New Orleans. Then shortly

afterwards, he added a Quick Turn Nexus QTN 350 and a

QTN 450, both CNC turning centers also from Mazak. The

machines provide Plant Machine Works with unmatched

productivity and reduced cycle times across its wide range of

shorter and longer, large-diameter shaft-type part applications.

The STN 500 started the ball rolling. Plant Machine Works

quickly made the AVLs (approved vendor lists) of practically

all of its major local customers for large part turning. These

same customers would then have the shop also handle the

turning work for all their other divisions located nationwide.

Requests for quotes came in not only for big turning work but

also for slightly smaller parts, those with 16–23" (406–584

mm) ODs and measuring 16–120" (406–3048-mm) long, as

opposed to the shop’s usual parts that ran much bigger. The

QTN 350 and QTN 450 machines were acquired to machine

these smaller part size jobs.

The STN 500 gives the shop a bed length of 120" and

allows it to machine part diameters up to 35.8" (909 mm), as

An Employee Owned

Company

[email protected] • www.maford.com

Shop Solutions

38 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | December 2013

Machinist Zachery Downs checks an oil and gas industry

part machined from 4140 material on the shop’s Mazak

Slant Turn 500 turning machine. Part starts as a solid bar.

After center hole is trepanned, it goes to the Slant Turn 500

for turning OD, two different IDs, and inside taper, boring,

threading and drilling. Total machining time is 24 hours. The

ID alone has 5" (127 mm) of material removed and about

0.500" (12.7 mm) from the OD.

well as quickly create machining programs to run first article

parts. The machine’s Nexus CNC control not only allows for

fast and easy conversational or EIA/ISO programming formats,

but also provides 3D machining simulation to verify part pro-

grams and check for possible interference with the machine’s

turret and tailstock.

“Once we had the first Mazak up and running, we knew

that any future turning machines we purchased were going

to be Mazaks, which is why we got the

two QTN machines,” said Barber. “The

machines have not only significantly im-

proved part accuracy, they’ve allowed us

to continuously reduce our turnaround

times. With their strength and power,

we can take faster, more aggressive

cuts to reduce cycle times, get parts off

machines faster and open up additional

machining capacity to take on even

more work. And thanks to the Mazaks,

we are able to manufacture and thread

rotary shoulder connections, tubing,

casings and drill stem elements to strin-

gent customer supplied specifications.”

Many parts are oilfield components,

and some are for coal burning plants.

Cycle times can range from four minutes

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Shop Solutions


Mechanical inner sleeve part is

chucked in the QTN 350 on its 11"

(279-mm) OD, and ID is machined.

The 16" (406-mm) long part is flipped

and the other half is machined and

grooves as well as threads are cut.

to those that will require a week’s worth of machining. Most

of these big parts involve machining away huge amounts of

material and holding tolerances between 0.0005 to 0.001"

(0.013–0.03 mm).

Practically all the shop’s energy industry customers

provide their own raw material because of industry quality

specifications and traceability requirements. A lot of these

materials are modified carbon steels, some of which are quite

challenging to machine. One is a 4340 +V. This newer oilfield

material incorporates vanadium, making it extremely abrasive

on cutting tools. To machine the material, Plant Machine

Works employs special tooling that the shop has discovered

performs better when run at more aggressive feed rates and

taking heavier depths of cut that only the Mazaks can handle.

“Most machine tools lack the speed, power and rigid-

ity to withstand the punishing parameters for long periods of

time,” said Barber. “For instance, our QTN 450 easily handles

machining a large long shaft part made from 4340 +V. This

particular part involves a lot of material removal from its 14"

[355-mm] OD and along its entire 118" [3-m] length. The chal-

lenge is the part’s length, and the machine’s heavy-duty rigid

headstock and steadyrest play critical roles in preventing cutter

chatter to ensure size and surface finishes are maintained.”

On the STN 500, the shop handles another challenging

part for the oil and gas industry. The part starts as a solid

large-diameter bar of tough 4140 with a trepanned ID hole

through its length when loaded into the STN 500. The ma-

chine cuts 5" (127-mm) worth of material from the part’s ID to

generate two different diameters and an internal cone-shaped

taper. Then it machines about 0.500" from the part’s OD, drills

some holes and does a threading operation. Total machining

time for the part is 24 hours, which is a significantly faster

processing time than if the part was done using the shop’s

other equipment.

Barber refers to the Mazaks as “difference makers” in

that they help the shop differentiate itself from the competi-

Shop Solutions


tion in terms of capabilities, particularly when it comes to

machining speed. He said that, simply put, the Mazaks cut

parts faster, and as an example, he cited a spacer part for

which the QTN 350 drastically reduced processing time.

With its older existing equipment, the

shop completed the spacer part in

11 hours. The QTN 350 now finishes

the part in just four minutes, and the

machine’s processing speed and ef-

ficiency have opened up more oppor-

tunities in a slightly smaller part size

range for the shop within other sectors

of the energy industries it serves.

The capabilities of the QTN 350 also

help reduce cycle times for another

recently acquired energy industry job.

The part is a mechanical inner sleeve.

The QTN 350 machines the OD and ID

on one half of the part, which is then

flipped around for the other half to be

machined. It also gets some grooves

and threads cut in it then moves to

another machine in the shop for some

holes and slots. Previously, the turn-

ing and threading operations took 1.5

hours. Now, the QTN 350 does them in

only 40 minutes.

Plant Machine Works is API licensed

to cut and monogram threads under

Specs. 5CT and 7-1, registered API

Spec. Q1 and has ISO 9001:2008 and

ISO/TS 29001 certifications. The shop

has a fully calibrated quality control de-

partment that ensures all part require-

ments are fulfilled, and its welding shop

is qualified in over 50 welding proce-

dures for a variety of material types from

carbon to stainless steel to titanium.

Plant Machine Works currently

ships, on average, 200 completed jobs

per month and is still doing repair work.

As a low-to-medium-volume shop, job-

lot sizes range from two to 100 pieces,

but most involve single-digit amounts.

Turnaround times range from immedi-

ately (on the repair service side) to about three weeks on the

CNC parts-machining side. ME

For more information from Mazak Corp., go to mazakusa.

com, or phone 859-342-1700.

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Altera QMT 05-2013 B.indd 1 8/14/2013 11:21:29 AMDecember 2013 | ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 43

Smart Honing Delivers Tight Pump Tolerances

“We don’t believe it!” That’s how experienced machin-

ists reacted to their first encounter with a ma-

chine tool that had produced nine bores per part with only

0.000020" (0.5 µm) variation, all day long, with essentially no

operator attention on its first run of production parts.

That’s 2.21 Cpk process capability for a game-changing

smart honing technology at Waltz Brothers Inc. (Wheeling,

IL), a precision grinding and machining operation where

flight-critical aerospace hydraulic pumps are produced by the

hundreds every year.

Company president Larry Waltz knows it’s hard to hit this

tolerance window honing one bore per part, as the shop had

been doing with a standard machine. With nine opportunities

to make a micron-sized mistake on an expensive workpiece, it

takes great skill and many time-consuming machine/measure

iterations to make these parts on a standard machine.

“The new SV-1015 honing system not only produces per-

fect bores, it also records its final air gaging measurements to

track with each serialized part,” said Waltz. “When I showed

this new machine to a customer for whom we’d been making

these parts, they were so impressed they wanted us to commit

to a blanket order for all their parts for the next five years,”

Waltz said. “In that instant, we validated our painstaking deci-

sion to adopt this technology.”

“We’re a second-generation grinding business started by my

father and uncles in 1939. Our focus is close-tolerance preci-

sion parts requiring many operations that typically conclude

with grinding, honing, or lapping, so we added chip cutting

to better control the processes upstream from grinding,” said

Waltz. One specialty at this 60-person company is manufactur-

ing parts that go into aerospace hydraulic actuation systems.

“Piston pumps are a good niche for us,” Waltz said. “These are

the most critical parts we make. There’s great variation in mate-

rials, design details, process flow and assembly requirements,

but the parts do have fundamental similarities.”

The heart of the pump, called a cylinder block or ro-

tor, starts as a turned blank up to 8" (203-mm) diameter.

Then, nine circumferential piston bores from 0.1875 to 1.5"

(4.8–38.1-mm) diameter are roughed-in on a machining

center, and the part may be heat treated. The piston bores

are not through holes, but have small kidney-shaped slots cut

Shop Solutions


Continued on page 66

Rotors of hydraulic piston pumps have nine circumferential

piston bores from 0.1875 to 1.5" (4.8-38.1-mm) diameter

that are honed to a tolerance range of 0.000060" (0.001524

mm) at Waltz Brothers Inc. (Wheeling, IL) using Sunnen’s SV-

1015 smart honing system. The piston bores are not through

holes, but have small kidney-shaped slots cut through the

bottom. Some designs call for heat treating, use of bronze

bore liners, or bronze plating on the bottom of the part, its

running face.

through the bottom. Some designs call for heat treating, use of

bronze bore liners, or bronze plating on the bottom of the part,

its running face. Liners may be cast in or produced on Waltz’s

screw machines, then anchored into retaining grooves with a

ballizing process or swaging.

“Nine bores are common to most all pump designs. We

must maintain tolerances of 0.000020" [0.5 µm] for bore

roundness, 0.000040" [1 µm] straightness, 4–8 µin. [0.1–

0.25 µm] Ra bore finish, and less than 3 µin. [0.07 µm] sur-

face on the pistons. We have three Zeiss CMMs that can scan

the piston bores at various levels for cylindricity, too. All these

parts are serialized, traceable to the material and processes

used to create them,” said Waltz.

“During prototyping, we determine where to leave needed

stock on the part, but we fine-tune the stock allowance over

time and tweak our processes to be as efficient as possible.

For example, heat-treated parts are often carburized which

creates only a thin layer of surface hardness at about Rc 54.

Thus, we want to remove as much metal as possible before

hardening, so we aim for 0.0010 to 0.0015" [0.0254–0.0381-

mm] honing stock in the bore in the hardened state. Parts

with bronze bore liners are, of course, a different story.”

Waltz had been using standard horizontal honing technol-

ogy from Sunnen, where outcomes are heavily dependent on

the operator’s skill. The operator would hone one bore, clean

the part, air gage it at three different levels and then at 90°

bottom/middle/top to see if there’s any issue, such as taper at

the bottom of the bore which would have to be feathered out.

“There’s a tremendous amount of back-and-forth to com-

plete nine bores, and if you blow one bore, you’ve scrapped a

part valued at several hundred dollars. After honing, we must

have confirming CMM inspections on each part, each bore,

and this becomes part of the manufacturing history for each

block. Honing and inspection could easily take two hours per

part,” said Waltz.

“Our challenge to Sunnen was to automate everything, in-

cluding part indexing, air gaging, and recording of gage readings

for the part’s history. We achieved all this with the new Sunnen

SV-1015, but it was one of the new patented standard features

in this machine—multifeed honing—that has played a role in

taking our honing process capability to a new level,” said Waltz.

The new patented multifeed honing capability gives users a

choice of tool-feed modes to achieve the shortest cycle times,

lowest part cost, and longest abrasive life. Multifeed combines

Shop Solutions


Continued from page 44

Sunnen’s multifeed control technology on the SV-1015

allows the user to select the better tool feed option—rate

feeding or force feeding—to suit the workpiece geometry,

material, and tool type/size.

Sunnen’s new controlled-force tool-feed

with its existing controlled-rate feed system.

The two different modes allow the user to

select the better option to suit the workpiece

geometry, material and tool type/size.

Typically, a production honing process

is set up to use an abrasive tool with a

combination of grit size and bond opti-

mized for specific part conditions. Tool

expansion to achieve the desired results

and final size is programmed based on rate

of time. However, when a batch of parts

comes in with a different heat treatment,

distortion or a size variation, the opera-

tor must intervene because the tool may

expand too quickly and be damaged.

In the opposite case with a softer-than-normal or oversize workpiece, the tool will

still expand at its programmed rate, when it might have been able to expand faster

to reduce cycle time. Expansion at too slow a rate may also result in glazing of the

honing stones, which won’t self-dress if the cutting force is too low. Typically, the

operator tweaks a rate-feed system periodically to compensate for these variables.

By servo-controlling the force in the tool feed system, however, the machine

can sense and compensate for these variables. The controlled-force feature, which

works in concert with the machine’s standard rate-feed system, functions like cruise

control to maintain the optimum cutting load on the honing abrasive throughout a

cycle, regardless of the incoming part’s hardness, geometry or size variation.

Waltz’s new SV-1015 vertical CNC honing machine has a single 5-hp (3.7-kW)

AC spindle with 10-hp (7.5-kW) servo-stroking system and X-Y air bearing table.

The operator loads the workpiece in a dedicated fixture that uses the part’s kid-

ney slot as a locating feature. After each bore, the table indexes 90° to an Etamic

air gaging station where the necessary readings are taken and stored. If the bore

passes inspection, the table moves the part to a robot that indexes it for the next

bore, duplicating this routine eight times to complete a part. A fixed-position master

set ring inside the machine’s work envelope ensures correct gage calibration for

current environmental conditions.

“On a recent project with an allowable bore tolerance of 0.000240" [0.006 mm],

we easily held a tolerance range of 0.000060" [0.001524 mm]—that’s 25% of the

total allowable tolerance, and we tripled the previous production rate, while reducing

the labor component by 80% so the operator can do other work in the cell,” said

Waltz. “We know from reinspecting the parts on our CMMs that the results correlate

well. The process capability and data reporting features in the machine have been a

great advantage to us and our customers, allowing that data to be downloaded to a

spread sheet or SPC software. ME

For more information from Sunnen Products Co., go to www.sunnen.com,

or phone 800-325-3670.


Based on measurements taken by

the air gage (shown), the honing

tool is automatically adjusted to

maintain a precise diameter. Com-

pensations for taper, barrel-shape

or bell-mouth conditions can also

be made.

Automation Grows Silicon Valley Manufacturer

Headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley and with

manufacturing facilities in Fremont, CA, and Phoenix,

AZ, Essai Inc. designs and manufactures test equipment

for the semiconductor, computer, and consumer electronics

industries. These products and systems play a critical role in

the testing function and have contributed to the rapid growth

of his company, said Nasser Barabi.

“Essai was founded in 2003 and, since its inception, it has

consistently averaged significant positive revenue growth every

single year. This has been repeatedly recognized by ranking

organizations such as Inc. magazine which has cited Essai as

one of the fastest growing companies for three consecutive

years,” said Barabi. “Key aspects contributing to our success

are innovation, business systems, first-class team, and using

technology to automate our entire operation in order to gain

and maintain a competitive advantage.”

Essai designs and manufactures test and validation hardware

for the semiconductor, computer and consumer electronics

industries. The equipment is used to test integrated circuits and

systems for their functionality and reliability. Significant product

categories include Interconnect, Thermal PCB, and Systems Test.

Manufacturing of components for Essai’s products is done in

a highly automated machining environment with material han-

dling systems from EROWA Technology Inc. (Arlington Heights,

IL), recommended by machine tool supplier Hermle Machine Co.

(Franklin, WI). Initially, Essai’s production cells were configured

with two Hermle C30U five-axis CNC machining centers serviced

by an EROWA material-handling robot.

Essai has five such cells in their California

facility. “Our latest generation production

cell in our Phoenix facility consists of four

Hermle C22U five-axis machining centers

serviced by the state-of-the-art EROWA

Dynamic Linear robotic system, which has

resulted in a significant improvement in

production throughput,” said Barabi.

The kinds of components being

machined are typically under 8" (203

mm) and made from a variety of materi-

als including aluminum, copper, stainless

steel and engineering plastics. Materi-

als are fixtured on pallets with an RFID

chip attached. Raw materials which also

have RFID chips attached are matched

to manufacturing requirements for each

component. “In this way, there is a mix

of parts going into the cell for machin-

ing with batch sizes ranging from one to

1000. “Typical batch size is between 30

and 50 parts,” says Barabi.

Putting the Hermle cell and EROWA

automation into production took just a

matter of weeks after the machines were

Ferracci Machines USA

Finally, a Chip Collection System that is especially developed and designed for the metal industry.

These units collect wet and dry chips and shavings, as well as coollent.

Italian Madewww.ferraccimachinesusa.com

Telephone:1-800-609-4614

Shop Solutions


Essai’s Phoenix facility’s production line consists of four

Hermle C22U five-axis machining centers serviced by the

state-of-the-art EROWA Dynamic Linear robotic system.

set in place and connected. Fine-tuning the systems took an

additional two months, during which time Essai has been able

to optimize the system and validate the effectiveness of the

new configuration of its production cells.

Essai has made this its standard cell

configuration going forward and has

recently placed an order for an additional

cell that will be placed in service at its

Phoenix, AZ, facility by the end of the year.

One particular feature of the new

production line is the Multi-Pallet Load-

ing Station with separate loading and

unloading areas. Its design is highly

ergonomic and has been received very

favorably by Essai’s operators. “It is

extremely user-friendly and efficient.

This has resulted in a higher throughput

and reduced operator workload. The

four machines in the cell are capable of

running non-stop with minimum opera-

tor interaction,” said Barabi.

“We’ve been using EROWA EMC Cell

Management Software for about six years,

but we were already impressed with

the potential of the software during the

evaluation stage. Through collaboration

and technological innovation, EROWA has

managed to develop EROWA EMC as the

most advanced automation control system

in the industry,” said Barabi.

“To put it in a nutshell, EROWA helps

us to achieve operational excellence.

This is vital to Essai since we operate in a

highly complex and competitive environ-

ment. EROWA helps us to maintain our

leading position as a design and produc-

tion organization for the world’s biggest

high-tech corporations,” said Barabi.

On its website, Essai has published

and defined its statement of intent to go

green: “To be green means you must be

efficient. Automation is the way to reduce

wasted energy and material and is the

key to achieving efficiency. This is our

corporate stance and we continually strive

to progress toward this goal. Above and beyond this, though, we

want to take the entire supply chain on board,” said Barabi. ME

For more information from EROWA, go to www.erowatech.

com, or phone 847-290-0295.

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